Hack Slapped With Felony No-License Charge

A taxi driver from Maspeth, Queens, working for a Brooklyn company, was arrested near the I.G.A. supermarket on Montauk Highway in Amagansett at 4 a.m. Monday on a felony driving without a license charge.

The man, Aquiles A. Pozo, 44, has had his license suspended or revoked multiple times. “You probably have had 20 suspensions or revocations,” East Hampton Town Justice Catherine Cahill said Monday during his arraignment, as she read through his arrest record. Driving without a license can be charged as a felony after 10 suspensions.

Mr. Pozo told the justice he had just taken a passenger from Brooklyn to Montauk before being arrested. “You may think you are entitled to drive a taxi to shuttle people around, but I don’t agree,” the justice said.

Justice Cahill said she was setting bail at $500. She asked Mr. Pozo if he was going to call someone to make bail, and, speaking through an interpreter, Tania Valverde, he answered, “I don’t have anybody.” He asked the justice if she could lower the bail to $400, so he would have enough money to get home.

“I’m more inclined to raise the bail than to lower it,” the justice answered, because of what she said were Mr. Pozo’s repeated failures to show for court dates. She set a return date in court for today and told him that it was in his best interest to return. He would be assigned a Legal Aid attorney to assist him, she added.

He told her that driving a taxi was the only thing he could do, because of his hands, which are deformed. “He cannot hold hot water,” Ms. Valverde said on his behalf.

“I’m sorry, sir, I can’t do anything for you,” the justice said.

Also in justice court, bail was set at $10,000 for Kelvin R. Jiminian on Tuesday after he was arrested on three charges, the most serious of which, violating a court order of protection for his ex-wife and two children, is a felony. He was accused of sending her threatening text messages.

Mr. Jiminian, who lives in Springs, had previously been arrested for harassment involving his ex-wife. At the time of that arrest, Justice Cahill had issued the order of protection.

Mr. Jiminian’s attorney, Christian Killoran, argued before Justice Cahill that the felony charge was without merit, since the ex-wife had specified that the only way Mr. Jiminian could communicate with her regarding their children was via text messages.

“That doesn’t give him the right to threaten her,” the justice said. “We had a little chat when the O.P. was signed that this was now between him and the court, not between him and his wife.” The justice said that Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota’s office had asked for bail to be set at $10,000.

“He has all the reasons in the world to return,” Mr. Killoran said, arguing that his client was not a flight risk and therefore should not be assigned such a high bail.

“The seriousness of the charge is my concern,” Justice Cahill responded. “Bail is $10,000.” Mr. Jiminian is due back in court today.

Justice’s Ire Is Raised

A Southampton man who was pulled over by East Hampton Town police for allegedly speeding Monday night ended up being arrested on a misdemeanor driving without a license charge, as well as two misdemeanor charges of false personation related to another encounter with police early Tuesday morning. Such a charge is leveled when a defendant, after being told that it is a crime to misidentify oneself to an officer, does so anyway.

Gabriel Narvaez, who turned 24 yesterday, managed to raise the ire of Justice Cahill during his arraignment. “It is this close to a felony,” Justice Cahill said to him. “Your license has been suspended 14 times.”

Mr. Narvaez, who was arrested in late 2011 on charges of driving while intoxicated and felony driving without a license, pointed out to the court that his father was in the courtroom, and that he was scheduled to leave for California, where he is studying accounting.

“You’ve needed to deal with this D.W.I. from two years ago. You need to resolve these issues” before leaving for school, Justice Cahill said. She set bail at $1,000 and asked Mr. Narvaez’s father if he would post it.

“No, I’m not,” he said slowly, and left the courtroom.

Mr. Narvaez told the justice that he could manage to post the bail himself.

“You can post $1,000 bail. Why in God don’t you go to the D.M.V. and deal with this?” she asked.

“What do I do as far as school?” Mr. Narvaez asked.

“I’m not going to have this conversation. Call up your attorney, Mr. Astarita. And be here this Thursday.”

Jonathan Miranda of Montauk, 27, was arrested at his Ditch Plain Road address on Aug. 13 on a charge of misdemeanor criminal mischief, the intentional destruction of property. When police arrived after a report of a domestic fight, they found a 28-year-old woman who had been involved in it standing outside by her car. Her cellphone, which was inside the house, had been broken. The heavily redacted police report indicates that Mr. Miranda was responsible for the damage.

The woman told police she wanted to press charges and would seek an order of protection. Mr. Miranda was released the next morning without bail but with a future date in court.

A Bronx man was also arrested for alleged misdemeanor destruction of property. In the early morning hours of Aug. 14, police went to the Stephen Talkhouse in Amagansett after getting a call about an “unruly person.”

An officer found Goran Jokic, 27, with a bloody hand, arm, and face after he had punched out a front window of the nightclub. He was taken to Southampton Hospital, treated for his wounds, and returned to police. Released without bail later that day, he has a spot on the court calendar. The cost to replace the window was estimated at $200.

In another recent incidence of apparently drunken violence at the Stephen Talkhouse, around midnight on Friday the manager of the nightclub, Nicholas Kraus, told an officer on the street that a woman who’d been “unruly” in the bar had been kicked out and now was trying to get back in.

Police said Ingrid Seggerman, 26, of Needham, Mass., refused to get off the line to get into the bar when asked by an officer to do so, subsequently resisting and “yelling and cursing on the sidewalk.” Told she was being arrested, she refused to be handcuffed and “began to flail her arms, then attempted to push her way free,” the report said.

After several officers managed to get her into handcuffs and a squad car, she was taken to headquarters in Wainscott, where she continued to try to “push her way free” and “flail her arms.”

Ms. Seggerman was charged with physical harassment, a violation, and resisting arrest, a misdemeanor. She was released without bail early Saturday.

About the Author

T.E. McMorrow began freelancing for The Star in 2009, before coming on staff, full time, at the end of 2011. He is a member of the Drama Desk in New York. His book, “Nutcracker in Harlem,” illustrated by James Ransome, is scheduled for publication in the fall of 2016 by HarperCollins children’s division.